bees\' salt-sensing feet explain swimming pool mystery
The first-
A survey of the ability of bees to taste with their forefeet may explain a persistent mystery of bees: Why they gather in a saltwater pool.
The salt water pool does not require chlorine or other chemicals, but the online home and garden forum is full of complaints about the dark side of these pools.
Apparently, they attract a large number of bees.
Now, scientists have found that bees have salt-sensitive taste receptors on their feet, and even dwarf their ability to taste sweets.
\"Our guess is that they may not need to land on the water,\" said researcher Martin Giurfa, to taste the salt, director of the Center for Animal cognition studies at Toulouse University, France.
\"They may just feel the presence of a salty solution with the tip of their legs and then decide to land.
\"The solution to the mystery of the bee pool is just one of the findings of researchers.
They also learned that bees can\'t feel the bitter taste with their feet.
These results are important for understanding the sensory system of bees and how potential pesticides can harm these important pollinators and key laboratory models of cognitive research.
Thanks to its impressive navigation skills, bees (Apis mellifera)
It is a model creature that researchers use to understand learning and memory mechanisms.
Giurfa said that many scientists have studied the vision and smell of bees, but there is a feeling that has been left out.
\"In fact, no one pays attention to the taste of bees, which is very important to them,\" he told Life Science . \". [
Tip of the tongue: 7 (Other)
The taste that humans may taste]
To fill this knowledge gap, Maria Gabriela de Brito Sanchez of Toulouse University, co-author of Giurfa, carried out a series of hard experiments.
For two years, Sanchez has captured bees and stimulated their front feet with various delicacies (and not-so-tasty)
Solutions from sweet to bitter.
Like other insects, bees do not limit their taste to their mouths.
They also taste with the surface of the tentacles and feet.
In this case, the researchers focused on the feet and applied sweet sucrose, bitter quinine and other solutions to the end tarsi of the leg.
Sanchez measures how bees react by observing if they stick out their tongue --
Delicious substances cause proboscis to stand out, while unpleasant substances cause no reaction or withdrawal.
Sanchez also uses tiny electrodes to measure the response of sensory cells of different flavors. Salt-
Given the bee\'s need for nectar, it\'s not surprising that the insect\'s feet are very sensitive to sugar.
But they prefer salt, says Giurfa.
Bees need salt to carry out their own metabolic processes and bring salt back to the hive to help the larvae swimming develop, Giurfa said.
So the owner\'s stylish saltwater pool attracts bees like a fly.
Finally, the researchers found that the bees did not seem to feel the bitter taste.
Giurfa said they would not take back the tongue according to the taste and their cells would not show an electrical reaction to the bitter substance.
These findings are useful for basic research, as bees are such important species for understanding the neural bases of memory and learning.
But the study may also benefit the bees themselves.
Bees all over the world are dying.
A mysterious phenomenon called a group collapse barrier.
Pesticides and other environmental contaminants are questionable, and the researchers turn their attention to how pesticides affect the navigation system, memory and brain function of bees.
\"They may also have a serious impact on these taste receptors,\" Giurfa said . \".
He and his colleagues wanted to try to expose the bee\'s feet to trace pesticides and see how the cells reacted.
The researchers reported their findings today (Feb. 4)
In the journal Frontier of behavioral neuroscience
Follow Stephanie Papas on Twitter and Google.
Focus on our life science, Facebook and Google.
Original article about Live Science.
Copyright 2014 livesscience, a technology media network company.
All rights reserved.
This material pool
A survey of the ability of bees to taste with their forefeet may explain a persistent mystery of bees: Why they gather in a saltwater pool.
The salt water pool does not require chlorine or other chemicals, but the online home and garden forum is full of complaints about the dark side of these pools.
Apparently, they attract a large number of bees.
Now, scientists have found that bees have salt-sensitive taste receptors on their feet, and even dwarf their ability to taste sweets.
\"Our guess is that they may not need to land on the water,\" said researcher Martin Giurfa, to taste the salt, director of the Center for Animal cognition studies at Toulouse University, France.
\"They may just feel the presence of a salty solution with the tip of their legs and then decide to land.
\"The solution to the mystery of the bee pool is just one of the findings of researchers.
They also learned that bees can\'t feel the bitter taste with their feet.
These results are important for understanding the sensory system of bees and how potential pesticides can harm these important pollinators and key laboratory models of cognitive research.
Thanks to its impressive navigation skills, bees (Apis mellifera)
It is a model creature that researchers use to understand learning and memory mechanisms.
Giurfa said that many scientists have studied the vision and smell of bees, but there is a feeling that has been left out.
\"In fact, no one pays attention to the taste of bees, which is very important to them,\" he told Life Science . \". [
Tip of the tongue: 7 (Other)
The taste that humans may taste]
To fill this knowledge gap, Maria Gabriela de Brito Sanchez of Toulouse University, co-author of Giurfa, carried out a series of hard experiments.
For two years, Sanchez has captured bees and stimulated their front feet with various delicacies (and not-so-tasty)
Solutions from sweet to bitter.
Like other insects, bees do not limit their taste to their mouths.
They also taste with the surface of the tentacles and feet.
In this case, the researchers focused on the feet and applied sweet sucrose, bitter quinine and other solutions to the end tarsi of the leg.
Sanchez measures how bees react by observing if they stick out their tongue --
Delicious substances cause proboscis to stand out, while unpleasant substances cause no reaction or withdrawal.
Sanchez also uses tiny electrodes to measure the response of sensory cells of different flavors. Salt-
Given the bee\'s need for nectar, it\'s not surprising that the insect\'s feet are very sensitive to sugar.
But they prefer salt, says Giurfa.
Bees need salt to carry out their own metabolic processes and bring salt back to the hive to help the larvae swimming develop, Giurfa said.
So the owner\'s stylish saltwater pool attracts bees like a fly.
Finally, the researchers found that the bees did not seem to feel the bitter taste.
Giurfa said they would not take back the tongue according to the taste and their cells would not show an electrical reaction to the bitter substance.
These findings are useful for basic research, as bees are such important species for understanding the neural bases of memory and learning.
But the study may also benefit the bees themselves.
Bees all over the world are dying.
A mysterious phenomenon called a group collapse barrier.
Pesticides and other environmental contaminants are questionable, and the researchers turn their attention to how pesticides affect the navigation system, memory and brain function of bees.
\"They may also have a serious impact on these taste receptors,\" Giurfa said . \".
He and his colleagues wanted to try to expose the bee\'s feet to trace pesticides and see how the cells reacted.
The researchers reported their findings today (Feb. 4)
In the journal Frontier of behavioral neuroscience
Follow Stephanie Papas on Twitter and Google.
Focus on our life science, Facebook and Google.
Original article about Live Science.
Copyright 2014 livesscience, a technology media network company.
All rights reserved.
This material pool
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